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Creating a Dreamcast CDI ROM
CDI is the most popular image format when emulating Dreamcast. People commonly use CDI when uploading ROMs to the internet because most emulators (NullDC, Chankast, DCEmul, Reicast, etc.) are compatible with this format, the format can be burned by most disc image software (even free ones), and CDI is also the easiest format to make. __TOC__ Prerequisites You will need the following programs: * BootDreams * DiscJuggler v6, ImgBurn, or Alcohol 120% * Bootsector BootDreams is a free tool that allows the user to create Dreamcast ROMs or burn bootable disc images. The price is free because it is a open source tool and requires less than 10MiB space on your disk. DiscJuggler v6 Demo is recommended by us. The demo only allows 8x burning and less than 700MiB images but most homebrew roms are <=300MiB. But this is not a problem as most homebrew roms run on CDs about 700MiB and the Dreamcast cannot run anything faster than 4x speed anyway. This program is the main program used by many people who burn Dreamcast ROMs to discs and it allows anybody to make a working disc. ImgBurn is a free to use program that has no burning limits. But there's a catch, the write speed must be set to 4x or else the Dreamcast will refuse to read the rom. Alcohol 120% is not recommended by us because it is trialware that lasts to a certain period. Unless you have a license for Alcohol 120%, please do not use this. It will burn CDIs at the needed rate but you must own a license to keep Alcohol 120%. Setting up the CD-R root filesystem The Dreamcast mounts the CD at /cd and it is looking for a kernel to boot from on the boot sector. When the boot sector is found, the boot sector tells the Dreamcast what file to load. With that in mind, you are gonna want to set up a source folder. The source folder, when it is burned to a CD, will look like this: Index of /cd: * ./ * ../ * bootsector * main_binary The name of the main boot sector file is ip.bin. ip.bin is a 32KiB binary file that is used as the boot sector for Dreamcast ROMs. By default, the file points to another file called 1st_read.bin which is the main binary file that stores all game information. 1st_read must always be in the root, DO NOT PUT IT IN OTHER FOLDERS. Creating the image To create the image, you will need BootDreams. When it's installed, open the program. The default section that is loaded is 'Create DiscJuggler Image' which will create the CDI. Click browse, then navigate to the folder with the binaries. Unless the readme file or website says otherwise, the Data type is always Audio / Data. Finally, the CDI is ready to be created. When you click Process, you will have a choice of where the CDI should be saved to. After the CDI file name and directory is set, BootDreams will run a set of commands (such as cdrecord, mkisofs, binhack, img4dc, etc.) and then the CDI will be made. Use the tutorial here to learn how to burn the image to a CD. Category:Dreamcast Category:DreamcastTutorials